Atomic Kommie Comics: 1960s

Showing posts with label 1960s. Show all posts

Monday, December 8, 2025

Monday Mecha Madness ASTRO BOY "Gangor"

Last Week We Presented...

...the never-reprinted 1960s Gold Key comic book adaptation of one of the original Astro Boy episodes!

This week, we're showing you the actual episode...with an evil robot that looks a somewhat different than the actual robot in the episode!

But Wait!
Now that you've seen both the American comic book, and the English-dubbed anime episode, there's one more version of the tale to tell!
You'll see it...
Next Monday!
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Astro Boy

Ultra Collectors' Edition Set 1

(Contains the complete [52 episodes] First Season, PLUS, Lots of Extra Features!)

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Saturday, December 6, 2025

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 1

Ya Want Full-On Space Opera?

Now, Here's SPACE OPERA!

...starring the one-and-only Flash Gordon as rendered by EC Comics legend Wally Wood!

The story continues next Saturday...with a different artist!

Illustrated by Wally Wood and his studio.

Wood (and writer Harvey Kurtzman) had previously-done the hysterical MAD comic book parody "Flesh Garden" (which you can read HERE), but this is his only "official" Flash Gordon work...which is a really shame, because is there's anybody who deserved a chance to do at least one continuity featuring the character, it's him!

The writer is unknown.

Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's title from the same publisher, King Comics.

The particular tale appeared in the back of King's The Phantom #18 (1966), which was actually the first issue of the series from King Comics.

(They just continued the numbering from the previous publisher, Gold Key!)

Monday, December 1, 2025

Monday Mecha Madness ASTRO BOY "Gangor the Monster"

Though technically a "robotto", not a "mecha"...

...this manga-to anime character was America's first exposure to Japanese pop culture's passion for artificial life-forms!

Now, we're presenting the first American comic book adaptation of one of the episodes from the 1963 series, which aired afternoons Monday through Friday on local channels!

But Wait!

Do You Believe the Threat of the Weird Robot is Over???

You're in for a surprise...

Next Monday!

Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Astro Boy

Ultra Collectors' Edition Set 1

(Contains the complete [52 episodes] First Season, PLUS, Lots of Extra Features!)

Paid Link

Sunday, November 16, 2025

The RetroBlog Thanksgiving Turkey for 2025 Is...

Wait!
WHAT???
Where is that damn intern???
WTF is going on???
"You said "pull the poster for yadda-yadda-Man-yadda-Flint-yadda-sitting in a chair surrounded by women!"
That's not what I meant!
This is what I meant!

(and yes, the poster was deliberately-designed to mimic Bob Peake's iconic art!)
Now that is a turkey worth roasting...although what we're presenting is the HTF comic book adaptation...which is quite different from the film!

(With the long lead-in time to write, draw, and print the comic, I suspect they only had the early drafts of the script to adapt.)
At any rate,
Part 1 will run on Thanksgiving!
Part 2 will appear on Black Friday!
And, here's a kool early Christmas present for you...
On Saturday, the original, uncut theatrical print (including the pre-credits sequence with Wilma instead of Lady Liberty holding the Columbia torch aloft!) will be seen for the first time in decades, so you can compare it with the comic!
So Visit Secret Sanctum of Captain Video on Thanksgiving...or wander over on Saturday (after shopping on Black Friday) if you want to binge everything at once!

Friday, November 14, 2025

Friday Fun ABBOTT & COSTELLO COMICS "Comics Convention!"

Like Jim Starlin, Roy Thomas, Berni Wrightson, and numerous others...

...writer/artist Grass Green was part of the first generation of fanboys-turned-pros in the 1960s.

What few people knew was that Grass was one of the few Black fanboys!

While he occasionally worked in mainstream comics, as shown in this never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Abbott & Costello Comics #16 (1972), Green found his greatest professional success as the first Black underground/alternative comix writer/artist!

From the early 1970s to the late 1990s, Grass did quite a bit of work for Kitchen Sink, Renegade, Rip Off, and Fantagraphics' Eros imprint.

Sadly, Grass passed away from lung cancer in 2002.

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Black Comics

Politics of Race and Representation
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Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Salute the Troops on Veterans Day SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS...in Korea...and VietNam???

Yep!
The guys who (almost) won World War II single-handedly (as a team)...

...fought in Korea (over half a decade later), and, fifteen years after that...

...in VietNam!
Here's how it begins in 1967, when World War II vet Nick Fury is a middle-aged (between 45 and 50 years old) but still fit, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D....

Want to see more?

March over to our "brother" RetroBlog, Hero Histories...
NOW!

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Reading Room COMIC READER "Invasion!"

Here's a single image that conveys an entire story...

...a, sadly, never-completed tale meant for one of the Charlton sci-fi anthologies of the late Silver Age.

Probably abandoned when Jim Aparo joined editor Dick Giordano when he moved over to DC, it's typical of the detailed work Aparo produced for them, despite the awful printing that would obscure a lot of the time-intensive rendering.

The Comic Reader was a late 1960s-early 1970s newszine/fanzine, available at comic conventions and by subscription.

The covers were almost always exclusives, either pieces done to promote current projects (a Manhunter cover by Walt Simonson during the character's revival in Detective Comics) or unpublished work like this one that editor-publisher Paul Levitz felt deserved exposure to an appreciative audience!